Criminal Justice News

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Justice Department Outlines Plan to Enable Nationwide Collection of Use of Force Data

Today, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch announced several
steps by the Department of Justice to enable the nationwide collection of data
on law enforcement interactions with civilians, including data related to the
use of force by law enforcement officers.

“Accurate and comprehensive data on the use of force by law
enforcement is essential to an informed and productive discussion about
community-police relations,” said Attorney General Lynch.“The initiatives we are announcing today are
vital efforts toward increasing transparency and building trust between law
enforcement and the communities we serve.In the days ahead, the Department of Justice will continue to work
alongside our local, state, tribal and federal partners to ensure that we put
in place a system to collect data that is comprehensive, useful and responsive
to the needs of the communities we serve.”

The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing called
on law enforcement to “collect, maintain and report data . . .on all officer involved shootings, whether
fatal or nonfatal, as well as any in-custody death,” and the department is
committed to heeding this call.In 2014,
Congress passed the Death in Custody Reporting Act (DCRA), which required
states and federal law enforcement agencies to submit data to the department
about civilians who died during interactions with law enforcement or in their
custody (whether resulting from use or force or some other manner of death,
such as suicide or natural causes) and authorized the Attorney General to
impose a financial penalty on non-compliant states.However, Congress did not impose a similar
reporting requirement for ­non-lethal­ uses of force by law enforcement.In the absence of a statutory mandate, and in
an effort to close this gap, the department is partnering with local, state,
tribal and federal law enforcement to provide a means for national data
collection.In 2015, and in
collaboration with local, state, tribal and federal law enforcement the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began work on a “National Use of Force Data
Collection,” an online portal to collect use-of-force data from law enforcement
agencies across the country.

The Attorney General announced additional details regarding
these efforts:

National Use-of-Force
Data Collection.At the request of
local, state, tribal and federal law enforcement agencies, the FBI has been
working with such agencies to develop a National Use of Force Data Collection
program.The FBI announced the proposed
pilot program last week in the Federal Register.The pilot study will evaluate the
effectiveness of the methodology used to collect the data and the quality of
the information collected.The FBI is
seeking comment from all interested parties, including local, state, tribal and
federal law enforcement, civil rights organizations and other community
stakeholders.After reviewing and
addressing these comments, the FBI will issue a final proposal and plans to
begin the pilot data collection program in early 2017.The pilot study participants are expected to
include the largest law enforcement agencies, as well as the FBI, Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Drug Enforcement Administration and
U.S. Marshals Service.

DCRA
Compliance.Earlier this summer, the
department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) issued a draft proposal
outlining its plan for collecting death-in-custody data from state and local
law enforcement agencies.Last week, the
first public comment period closed, with several thousand comments
received.The department is currently
reviewing those comments and it plans to issue an updated proposal in the near
future.

Federal Reporting
under DCRA.The DCRA requires federal
law enforcement agencies to report information on deaths that occur during
interactions with federal law enforcement agencies or in their custody,
beginning with Fiscal Year 2016 (FY2016) data.FY2016 ended September 30.The
Attorney General has issued a memorandum to federal law enforcement agencies
formally notifying them of their reporting obligations under the DCRA and
directing them to BJS for further coordination.

Police Data
Initiative (PDI).The department’s
Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Office announced today that it has
assumed leadership of the Police Data Initiative (PDI), a data transparency
project initiated by the White House in 2015.Through PDI, participating law enforcement agencies commit to publicly
releasing at least three policing datasets, which can include data on stops and
searches, uses of force, officer-involved shootings, and other police
actions.Numerous foundations,
organizations and companies have stepped up to help.The PDI currently includes 129 law
enforcement agencies, covering more than 44 million people across the
country.To assist with this effort, the
COPS Office recently awarded the Police Foundation a $750,000 cooperative
agreement through FY2016 funding to support PDI.Over the next two years, the Police
Foundation will work with a cohort of approximately 100 law enforcement
agencies to develop promising practices for police open data usage, support
community engagement regarding policing data and provide technical assistance
to law enforcement agencies to collect and publish open data sets.

These initiatives demonstrate once again the department’s
deep commitment to the ideals of the President’s Task Force.The department will continue to work with
local, state, tribal and federal agencies to encourage and support data
collection and transparency beyond these projects.